“When you can do 5 pull-ups, then you call me,” my wife Ausra said to me yesterday during breakfast.

Her cousin was visiting us and I incidentally told them about my challenge. Ausra, of course, knowing about my failed past attempts to exercise for longer periods of time was skeptical.

Ausra’s cousin seemed to be quite impressed by this challenge. Maybe it was because she didn’t know me as well as Ausra did. I said to her she could do something like that too if she wanted. But she said, no, she didn’t believe she could even attempt anything of that sort.

Yes, believing is everything. If I didn’t believe in this challenge, I also wouldn’t bother to start. That’s the reason my initial goal is not 100 pull-ups, right?

Nevertheless, after breakfast I asked them to go with me to the garden where my pull-up bar was. I went upstairs and changed my t-shirt and while they looked at flowers, apples and raspberries, I grabbed some gloves and did my set of 5 10 second dead hangs with 2 minute rests in between.

Although I just had my breakfast, somehow it was easier to hang for 10 seconds on the bar. Maybe my shoulder and chest muscles are already slowly getting used to the idea that they will have to be miserable for the next few months…

At the end of the last dead hang I attempted to do one pull-up. But no, I could only flex my hands half way before they gave out.